Tonight I had my first official gig at Headlands since moving to Ft. Bragg. I had Gino come out and accompany me on my second set. I did a jazz set to start, then the blues set with Gino and ended with a western/rockabilly set with Gino on a few of the tunes. It went well. I used my Lyon & Healy oak guitar and the Gibson L-50, like I did on Friday, micing both for an acoustic sound that worked great for that place. The crowd, unfortunately, was small - but they were a good one and several stayed right to the end. Raphael - the Guatamalan fabric vendor from Philo, was there with his wife (or girlfriend - I'm not sure which) and played spoons during a lot of the first two sets.

Last night I got a phone call from a guy named Dan Sitts who is the leader of the Big River Band. He invited me to go out to his place in Albion tomorrow night and sit in on a rehearsal of his band. I got tht impression that they don't really have a front man so we just might be what each other needs. We'll see what happens, and I will report it here.

Feb 27, 2004 02:20

Tuesday night (the night before last) I drove out to Albion and rehearsed with the Big River Band. It was fun, and I would do it again if they asked me. I would also consider performing with them as a member of the band. Whether I would want to use them as back-up for one of my gigs is another question. We'd need to get together some more and see how it goes. They seemed a bit "loosy goosy" for my taste -but that may have been an erroneous impression on my part.

Now I am waiting to hear back from "Eve of the Mystics" - I understand that Eve is actually her middle name, and "The Mystics" is the name of her former band. She called me over the weekend and proposed that we get together to explore the possibilities. As far as I know she'd never heard me perform, but I saw her show one night a few weeks ago at Headlands when she was singing jazz with John Gilmore. Apparently she also plays guitar and does other types of music as well. I ran into her a few nights later at Headlands and complimented her on her performance that night. She then saw me at the Ford Street show (although I am pretty sure she didn't see my set) and connected me with my photo in the program, which also contained my phone number. We talked about getting together this weekend, but so far she hasn't called me back.

Mar 07, 2004 02:49

Last night I played a gig with Gino at the Hoare House (that's pronounced "Oar house", by the way). It was suppoosed to be the first of what might have become a regular gig, except that the owner lost his liquor license- so this show was more of a wake than anything else. It was a private party from around 8 until midnight. We played 9 - 12.

We went electric - I brought the ES125 and plugged into my Fender Princeton, also brought the Peavy PA. Gino played through his own mic into the PA.

It was an okay gig - no real money to speak of - but a good sized (rowdy) crowd. Playing electric is not my first choice - but I figured there would be more than 20 people there, and the place has a high ceiling, so we needed to have some sound reinforcement.

This morning I called Butch Kwan - a local guitarist/mandolinist/fiddler and made arrangements to get together on Wednesday night with him over here. I met him two weeks ago at the Ford Street Benefit. He was setting up his equipment when I did my sound check on Friday evening - I could hear him playing along behind me, over my shoulder, silently because it was a solid body viloin - not plugged in. He gave me his card and asked me to call him some time. I mentioned to him this morning that I have an appearance coming up on March 20 at Headlands, and he readily agreed to come over and explore some possibilities.

I am also likely to rehearse again with the Big River Band this week on Tuesday. Things are heating up...

Mar 13, 2004 12:45

Butch called on Wednesday (today is Saturday) and cancelled the session because he hurt his back. We have set it again tentatively for next Wednesday.

In the meantime, Gino called me last night and wanted me to do another bar gig with him. The problem was that it was a St. Patrick's Day engagement and they wanted Irish music. I told Gino I am not an Irish musician and flatly refused to consider it. He tried to entice me saying it was a $300 gig - I told him to find an Irish musician. I can see that Gino is going to be another Ran Bush - always looking to "fake it" if the music isn't actually our style. I refuse to get dragged into that kind of situation. I do an act - I don't take requests...

Mar 17, 2004 03:24

Tomorrow I am again scheduled to have a session with Butch Kwan. I called him today and confirmed that he would be coming over tommorow evening. I stopped by Headlands earlier today when I was out hanging paper on the Friends of Acoustic Music gig Saturday. I saw Dave and spoke with him as I put one of my flyers on his bulletin board. He seemed pleased to find out I was on the show.

I stopped in again later this evening to see Bob Dee's band, Acoustic Serenade. I ran into Tamara there and yet another of her sisters (I assumed that's what she was - she looked just like a younger version of Libby). As I was leaving the young lady mentioned they would be coming back to see me on Saturday. I hopes for a good tourist crowd this weekend, since it's right in the middle of the whale festival...

Mar 26, 2004 02:58

The gig on Saturday was my best appearance yet in Ft.Bragg. I had Butch come up after my 3rd song and he stayed on for the rest of the set. Gino joined us for the last 4 songs. It was a great night. There was a great crowd - maybe half of them were tourists. My new friend Wayne (of THE Barber Shop) showed up and sat with Lonna all evening. I felt really "on", Butch's playing was spot on and Gino was really good as well. Butch and I spoke on the phone last night and he agreed with me that we are going to be playing together regularly for the forseeable future. In fact we have made an arrangement to get together weekly on Wednesday evenings for a while to cement our act and explore the possibilities of our partnership. I would love to find a good stand-up bass player to round us out to a trio.

By the way, my other new friend George also performed on the program, closing the show. He had me up to play a couple of tunes with him. Of course, we had not rehearsed anything so it was a bit ragged.

This weekend we have four of our friends from the Bay Area coming up for a visit. As Allen Carlson has told me several times, "It comes with the territory when you move to the country..."

Jun 15, 2004 02:59

A bit of a skip there. Butch and I have been rehearsing regularly and have started working on some recordings for a demo. Tomorrow we are going out to Albion to have a session with Dan Sitts and Danny Hagen. They are known around here as the Big River Band. I rehearsed with them once before in the spring with another guitar player. Tomorrow it will be just Butch, me and the rhythm section. Could be a lot of fun...

Oliver & Kwan have three gigs coming up in June and July. We are at Headlands on the 22nd. Then we have a wedding gig on Saturday, July 18th, followed by a show at the Summer Art Festival at the Mendocino Art Center the next day.

We played out on Main Street on Sunday. Not a great day for it. Next time we plan to try a Saturday in the late morning. But we still managed to stop traffic with the fiddle on 52 Vincent. We found a new spot in front of where the Irish Shop used to be and played for about an hour for $22 and change.

Last weekend we went to an English Country Dance in Caspar. Butch played in the band. Lonna and I ended up dancing several dances, some together and others with other partners. It was exhausting, but we had a lot of fun.